Poker Ride

No one from the barn wanted to brave the heat (or get up at 4 am on a Sunday), so Ruby and I went to the ride solo.  Instead, I was supposed to meet a SEDRA mentor, but that didn't work either.  We still had a fabulous ride.

True to form, I nearly chickened out at the last minute.  Driving around here is not for the faint of heart, towing even less so, and towing in the (near) dark alone is something I was dreading.  I was going to have to hitch the trailer in the dark, load Ruby into a dark trailer, etc.  But you can always find reasons not to do things, huh?  Obviously, we went anyway.

I took a wrong turn and didn't make it in time to meet the mentor, so Ruby and I struck out on our own.  She was alert but not really nervous. It wasn't long before we caught up to a group of riders and I was having to hold Ruby back - have I mentioned that she has a ridiculously fast walk?  They offered to let us pass...and we just kept passing people.   We passed at least 30 horses - all by just out-walking them.  We trotted a few times but not for long stretches because she wasn't really watching her feet.  The trail changed from regular woods to grassy, open trail, to twisty single-track through thick, scrubby woods.

Ruby was fantastic.  She never got attached to any of the horses on the trail, and she was so brave.  The only time she got flustered is when we came up behind a horse-drawn buggy.  They were stuck when we came up on them and when they got unstuck she initially freaked when she thought the horse was being chased by the buggy, lol.  Her only real issue was watching her feet - I cannot always trust her not to trip over something, even if it's obvious.  I think she'll get over this as she gets more trail miles.  Oh, and my poor mare doesn't seem to have any sense of direction whatsoever - she always seems so surprised to find herself back at the trailer.  As we came out of the woods, a lady asked to take our picture so maybe we'll see it on the SEDRA website.  Unfortunately I didn't get any good pics today. 

We had a really good ride and I feel like we hit another milestone today.  No, we were not truly out there alone but Ruby and I were only out there with each other.  Oh, and this was the first trail ride that I haven't felt wiped out at the end - I know it's pathetic but also true.  https://www.strava.com/activities/159553482